Recent legal wrangling over proposed destination resorts in Central Oregon has grabbed its share of the headlines over the last several months. Among the numerous issues that have raised eyebrows are impacts to groundwater, wildlife, agriculture, and the cost of providing traffic infrastructure to serve these large-scale developments.

On November 29th, the Oregon Department of Transportation's Region 4 Manager, Bob Bryant, sent a letter (attached below) to LandWatch acknowledging that the approach used to calculate the resorts' share of the cost of providing needed highway facilities is outmoded and needs to be updated. Bryant's letter states that the agency is working to address this problem.

Although it's uncertain how ODOT plans on altering its standards, this letter is sure to receive a cold response from resort industry: Not only does it signify that resorts will face an increased cost burden related to providing needed highway improvements, but it also suggests the emergence of new requirement that improvements must be constructed when they are actually needed - rather than at an uncertain date in the future - whether or not the rest of the public funding for the improvement is actually in place a the time.

"[Resorts] create the opportunity to establish a funding partnership to get improvements implemented sooner than if we relied on public funds," wrote Bryant.

"In the past, resorts have essentially been subsidized by taxpayers who pay for highway improvements needed by the resorts or, where public funds are lacking, resorts have been allowed to add substantial traffic to already failing highway intersections, making them far worse," explained LandWatch's Paul Dewey.

Which resorts will be impacted? Presumably ODOT's revised standards will apply to any resort that has not already reached final agreement with the agency over how to mitigate impacts on state highway facilities. This would include Thornburgh, Remington Ranch, Hidden Canyon, and would also impact the Seven Peaks Resort in Crook County as well as the Colson and Dutch Pacific resorts proposed near the Metolius if those plans move forward, and any other resorts coming down the pipe after those.

This news comes on top of the recent LUBA decision requiring that resorts must physically build their first 50 units before selling residential lots, and plans by Deschutes County to implemented rural Systems Develpment Charges on rural residences, inlcuding those in resorts.